Graham Horwood
The Taoist Group have published Tai Chi teaching videos made by my teacher Graham Horwood. These must have been made after I had left the classes so I have never seen them before. I'm struck by both the differences and sameness with my practice today.
I have shared links below in both grateful appreciation and deep respect for Graham's teaching.
I am also reminded of conversations with Paul Linden and how he describes striving to understand Aikido through testing and interpreting traditional teaching. Having independently followed that same path let me explain the different interpretation of the Tai Chi form in what today I have come to call Embodied Tai Chi:
I have broken down some postures into additional steps to support learning and add to the intention within each movement.
The short form I teach is simply the first part of the long form. This allows students to move on to learn the long form without needing to memorise a different sequence of postures. In fact I recall Graham only teaching the long form not being impressed by the shorter versions 'developed for Westerners who did not have the patience to learn a long form'.
Opening and closing described by Graham has a slightly different interpretation within Embodied Tai Chi. I have linked its application with breathing as there is a somatic relationship with relaxing the abdomen. This in turn informs the positioning of the arms in each posture. Finally open and close starts from the hands, influences the elbow through to the shoulder blades and spine 'connecting' whole body application of each posture.
I have always said to students that I will endeavour to teach the traditional form as it was passed to me, explain any difference in my practice and be honest with everyone if I don’t know the answer to a question or have made an error. For that reason I commend to you these two videos by my teacher Graham Horwood:
